Frustrated with Fringe

I know as well as anyone how hard it is to pull stuff together. And to pull something together on the scale of the Toronto Fringe Festival, well, I can’t even imagine the amount of work that would take.

I appreciate that, I do.

*UPDATE and clarification* Apparently what I was saying here was misinterpreted. My apologies for that. Fringe folks thought I was implying that they were working on things other than Fringe. I just want to clarify, that’s not the case at all. I know they’re all working their asses off, one individual doing the work 10 and so on. My issue was only withthe wording on one page of the website. I just didn’t like feeling like I was being chastised for looking at their website.

It’s frustrating that there is no schedule yet, but I can understand that. Wrangling all that information can’t be easy. I don’t have any intel on this, but my guess is that there are 5 people doing the job of 50 people. It’s an amazing accomplishment done by amazing people. I get it, I really do.

My problem is the website. Not that it’s not done, see the above paragraph. But rather what is currently there. Specifically “can t you see we re a little busy over here?” when one has the audacity to click the ‘play listings’ menu item. (the omission of apostrophes is part of the quote)

I do know that it’s meant to be funny. Glib, clever, tongue-in-cheek and so on, but here’s the truth, it pissed me off. Because it felt like I was being scolded. It felt like they were saying I shouldn’t be so impatient by checking the website. It was distinctly unwelcoming. Even though I knew how it was meant, it didn’t change my visceral reaction.

Given that the site used to say that listings would be up in May, and it’s now June, I feel like the tone should be apologetic, not belligerent. I understand delays happen, but this isn’t the way to deal with it.

I suppose the Fringe can get away with it, people are going to go to it no matter what. It’s a theatre event that lots of ‘non-theatre’ folks go to. It’s hip. But I think sometimes it’s this internal sense of entitlement that occasionally pops up in the community makes it pretty discouraging for non-theatre people. It just perpetuates the idea that theatre is for the elite. </rant>